Murals in Latino Communities: Social Indicators of Community Strengths

Abstract

The professional literature on Latinos has generally focused on the socioeconomic challenges facing this community. Latinos consistently have a disproportionate number of families in poverty; high rates of school dropout; alcohol, tobacco, and other drug abuse; and HIV/AIDS, to list just four social problems (Chachkes & Jennings, 1994; Holmes, 1996; Mayers, Kail, & Watts, 1992). They, in turn, generally reside in sections of areas that are often referred to as ghettos, barrios, slums, inner cities, or euphemistically are called distressed. Social workers and other helping professionals quickly learn to identify social indicators related to urban despair, for example, billboards selling alcohol and tobacco, large numbers of bars and liquor establishments, vacant lots, boarded-up buildings, abandoned cars, and so forth. Although the concept of strengths and assets has emerged slowly in the professional literature (Delgado, 1997a, 1998, in press; Logan, 1996; McKnight & Kretzmann, 1991; Saleebey, 1992a, 1992b), not enough attention has been paid to indicators of community health. A social-political appreciation of murals can help social workers and other helping professionals better understand Latino communities from an asset perspective. According to Holscher (1976-77): Murals . . . are newspapers on walls and a wealth of information is contained in them. They can be valuable to educators, politicians, sociologists, political scientists, architects and planners (p. 45). Social workers can also be added to Holscher's list. Diego Rivera, arguably the most famous muralist in the Western hemisphere, summed up the importance of murals quite well when stating mural painting must help in [a person's] struggle to become a human being, and for that purpose it must live wherever it can; no place is bad for it, so long as it is there permitted to fulfill its primary functions of nutrition and enlightenment (Rivera & Wolfe, 1934, p. 13). This article provides social workers with a multifaceted perspective on Latino murals and the important functions they serve for youths and their community. It is critical for social workers to view murals from an asset perspective to better understand community strengths and the issues and struggles of its residents. For community revitalization, for example, social workers must systematically consider the role murals can play in bringing a community together (Herszenhorn & Hirsh, 1996). The article presents and analyzes a case study, drawing on themes and competencies social workers can translate into strategies for community (youth) participation. Concept of Free Space and Strengths The theoretical work by Evans and Boyte (1986) and Saleebey (1992a, 1992b) set an excellent foundation from which to analyze the importance of murals in Latino and other communities of color across the United States. Evans and Boyte (1986) developed the concept called to explain places where community residents can come together and articulate common concerns, hopes, and shared values. According to the authors: The central argument . . . is that particular sorts of public places in the community, what we call free spaces, are the environments in which people are able to learn a new self-respect, a deeper and more assertive group identity, public skills, and values of cooperation and civic virtue. Put simply, free spaces are settings between private lives and large-scale institutions where ordinary citizens can act with dignity, independence, and vision. (Evans & Boyte, 1986, p. 17) Applying the concept of free spaces to Latino communities highlights numerous institutions and places controlled by and for the community. These places can be beauty or barber shops, grocery stores, social clubs, fundamentalist houses of worship, and parks, to list but a few types (Delgado, 1996, 1997b). Free spaces vary according to the community. …